I can well believe that mess. I researched the house we sold a few years back, as well as the lot we built on - both on the same street in our 25-house "subdivision". It was an interesting glimpse into history.

If you have a few hours (or days), go down the your County Courthouse and research your own title. The history you uncover can be fascinating.

For example, the original indenture for our little subdivision started with some hand-written entries in the county record books from around 1938. The original orchard owner decided he could make a bit of money by selling lots instead of fruit. Easements to various utilities have references to other pages with titles and easements in the books.

The original indenture specified that homes couldn't be sold to Blacks or Jews. Everyone blithely ignored those provisions during the last 3 or 4 decades. Finally MDH, during his second stint as a Trustee a few years back, pushed through a revised indenture that removed the ethnicity issues and simplified many other tangled provisions.

We have several Jewish and Chinese families, an Indian family, a Black family and a Filipino family as homeowners on this short street. The mother of the new set of twins has some awesome tattoos, although she is white<g>. We're very inclusive, so long as everyone keeps up their property and helps the neighbors out. In fact, the Indian Mom teaches a Sunday yoga class for whomever wants to attend, including older children. There's talk of Sunday afternoon walks, once the weather warms up and the spring rains stop.

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